BlueShoe

I have been on Colts boards since 1996, and this might be the best thread I have ever read. I wish you the best, @horseshoecrabs

Yeah. In this situation, we see the passion in Irsay and the savvy in Ballard. Historically, Irsay falls in love with prospects, which is why he wasn’t an effective general manager. He would give away too much for his guy. Fredd Young, Eric Dickerson, Jeff George, and so on... Irsay knows that about himself too, which is why he decided to hire general managers instead of going the Jerry Jones route.

I think there is near zero chance that Ballard brings in Suh. I don’t think Ballard believes our locker room is ready for a player like Suh. I think down the road he might take a chance on a player with some character concerns, but I don’t believe we are there yet. As far as bringing in someone else (without any character concerns) then I think there is a possibility. That said, Ballard said himself that he is happy with the competition we have across the defensive line. So much that he traded away Ridgeway to get more interior offensive line competition. I think we will add to the offensive and defensive line in just about every draft. We are not far from being one of the best teams in the NFL. I don’t think Ballard looks at the short term. He is playing the long game, because he wants the Colts window to be open for a long time.

It sounds like this feud has been going on for a while between the two of you. I’ll freely admit that I don’t know the history between you two. Honestly, I don’t care to know the details. That said, it does appear that you are on the wrong side of this argument and digging your heels in on top of it. Over the past couple of years you were against taking an interior offensive lineman early, against taking linebackers until the mid to later rounds, and this year you were against taking a corner or receiver early. I disagreed with you on all of those things, and so has Chris Ballard. You’ve admitted that you place positional value on players, and it’s clear that Ballard does not. Not attacking you. Just describing the facts that I know. Maybe there is more history between you two that I am missing though.

It’s way too early for me to grade this draft. Last year it was easy for me to say Ballard hit it out of the park. Nelson and Leonard were primo players and perfect fits for what we do. Let’s be honest, this year we did not have the third overall pick in the draft, and it’s a completely different situation. I think we might have hit on some second tier talent. Although I think Rock and Parris are both possible tier 1 candidates. Time will tell. Not everyone is going to be an All Pro rookie. I think Rock and Parris both have a chance to start on Day 1. Rock is the press man corner we have been looking for. With him in the lineup, we’ll run more cover 1 and cover 3. I believe that is our long-term vision of this defense. If Parris starts opposite of TY then he will see some single coverage, and he could have a phenomenal year. I think we’ll experiment a lot with Ben, Bobby, EJ, and Gerri until we find out exactly where they fit best. We got some depth and competition in the secondary and along the offensive line. I think it’s important for fans to understand that we are no longer a team with glaring needs. Our entire approach to the draft has changed. We will be picking much later, and we will be developing draft picks for the future. There will be years when we don’t start a single rookie. But that will not mean we had a bad draft. It will just mean that we are no longer desperate. That’s when we will know we are doing it right.

Not necessarily. They probably felt they could move back to 25 and still get their guy. It’s a risk for any team to take. They picked up some draft capital and presumably still got their guy.

I agree. I remember the Colts board (IndyStar back then) going nuts when we drafted Reggie. That was NOT a crowd pleaser.

Yeah. I think Ballard has proven that he will take any player that improves the team, regardless of position, at any spot in the draft. It’s one of the qualities I like most about him. He doesn’t seem to use a positional value system.

I am not sure about this “West side vs East side” thing going on. I haven’t been around much. But did you watch the Jim Irsay presser? It’s not hard to read between the lines. I think it’s reasonably obvious that Hollywood was our target and that the Ravens took him right in front of us.

I think we were ready to turn our card in with Hollywood’s name on it, and then we learned he was just selected by the Ravens.

The signs are pointing to the Ravens moving in front of us and then taking the player we were targeting. They probably had Hollywood targeted all along too, and felt they could move back and still get him.

I think Plan A was to take Hollywood at 26 and Rock at 34.

I haven’t listened to JMV today, but I think he got the wrong guy. Everyone and their brother mocked Jacobs to the Raiders at 24. That was no surprise. Ballard would have known he needed to move up to get Jacobs.

Too late to edit the post above. Here is a link to the video. https://www.colts.com/video/colts-owner-jim-irsay-discusses-the-2019-draft